One fact stands out in bold relief in the history of man’s attempts for betterment. That is that when compulsion is used, only resentment is aroused, and the end is not gained. Only through moral suasion and appeal to man’s reason can a movement succeed.
SAMUEL GOMPERSThe right to say the things which convey the new and yet unexpected thoughts, the right to say things, even though they do a wrong.
More Samuel Gompers Quotes
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To make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.
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Our mission has been the protection of the wage-worker, now; to increase his wages; to cut hours off the long workday, which was killing him; to improve the safety and the sanitary conditions of the workshop.
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The periods of unemployment accompanying depression in the business cycle . . . present a challenge to all our claims to progress, humanity, and civilization.
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In the last analysis, the welfare of the workers depends upon their own initiative. Whatever is done under the guise of philanthropy or social morality which in any way lessens initiative is the greatest crime that can be committed against the toilers.
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To free him from the tyrannies, petty or otherwise, which served to make his existence a slavery.
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Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment.
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There may be here and there a worker who for certain reasons unexplainable to us does not join a union of labor. That is his right. It is his legal right, no matter how morally wrong he may be. It is his legal right, and no one can or dare question his exercise of that legal right.
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Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.
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To be free, the workers must have choice. To have choice they must retain in their own hands the right to determine under what conditions they will work.
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The freedom of speech and the freedom of the press have not been granted to the people in order that they may say things which please, and which are based upon accepted thought, but the right to say the things which displease.
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No human being is unimportant. My inspiration comes in opening opportunities that all alike may be free to live life to the fullest.
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Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment.
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So long as we have held fast to voluntary principles and have been actuated and inspired by the spirit of service.
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The working people know no country. They are citizens of the world.
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Do I believe in arbitration? I do. But not in arbitration between the lion and the lamb, in which the lamb is in the morning found inside the lion
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